[ book tip by Kerry Andrew ] Fingersmith is a darkly gothic, twisting, spinning book that pours crime, sex, madness and intrigue into a juicy novel which manages to be both intellectually literary and an absolute page-blur of a treat.

This is Sarah Waters' third novel, following her bodice-ripping, strap-on-wearing debut Tipping the Velvet and the damply spooky Affinity, and picks up where she left off in Victorian London. This time it's slap-bang into the seedy underworld of petty crime and the deft plot to steal the inheritance from a rich but sheltered girl in Marlow. Our protagonist, Sue Trinder, is sent to pose as Maud Lilly's new maid by the silverquick mastermind Gentleman, until the feelings of both girls begin to muddy their fates...

The language, particularly in portraying the dark corners of Borough, is richly evocative, full of choice 19th-century slang to get your chops round. Waters' plot is as slippery as an eel, and whilst to say more would be to spoil it, I'll go as far as saying I fell off my chair in astonishment at the dramatic volte-face halfway through.

Waters' next book, the wonderful reversely-plotted The Night Watch, moves her lesbian-tinged dramas into World War II, so Fingersmith can be viewed as the last, and possibly best, part in a loose London Victoriana trilogy.

[ Favourite quote ] 'We were more or less all theives, at Lant Street. But we were that kind of thief that rather eased the dodgy deed along, than did it.'

[ book info ] Waters, Sarah: Fingersmith. (Book language: English) Virago, UK,